Massive power failure in North India: Delhi metro services hit

Seven states in North India have been facing a long power cut since late Sunday night. Due to a massive breakdown in the northern grid, the main power source for the affected states, there has been a massive power outage. The affected states are Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir.

In a press release, Delhi Metro said, "Owing to the breakdown of power supply from Northern Power Grid today, Auxiliary and Traction power supply of all Metro Lines/Depots was not available from 2:35 am to 06:58 am.

At around 7:00 am, when power supply was resumed from Northern Grid, Metro trains were rolled out from respective depots for passenger services in a phased manner.

A team of senior officers from Delhi Metro’s Electrical wing swung into action at 2:30 am to ensure that power supply is resumed for Metro at the earliest. Separate teams were deployed for DMRC’s Control Centres at Shastri Park and Metro Bhawan to supervise the overall situation and to ensure earliest restoration of power supply to DMRC."

There was no power in Delhi and its neighbouring states since 2 am reports IBN-Live. According to the report, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde said that it'll take another one and a half hour's time to restore power. "My officers are on the spot. The fault is found near Agra. It will be corrected in one and a half hour time," he said.

Thousands of commuters in the Delhi Metro will face a harrowing time on Monday morning as services of all the lines of the Metro have been disrupted due to tripping of power supply.

Train services on the 190-km Metro network connecting length and breath of the national capital were affected due to The Northern Grid failure also caused power cuts in large parts of Delhi.

No electricity. Reuters

"Metro service will not be available today (Monday) till the supply is restored as it is a major Northern Grid power failure," a Delhi Metro official said.

The Delhi Metro normally operates over 2,700 trips a day, covering about 70,000 km and carrying around 1.8 million passengers on week days.